


The Artifact

by Tischen



Category: The Inheritance Cycle - Christopher Paolini
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-22
Updated: 2015-03-22
Packaged: 2018-03-19 01:57:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3591960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tischen/pseuds/Tischen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A mysterious source of power lies on the island of Eoam. A short descriptive narration.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Artifact

On the largest island of an archipelago located off the west Alagaësian coast is a bay which opens, also westward. Several kilometers inland, far enough that the sea is no longer visible, but close enough that the smell of salt permeates the air, lies a ring of granite mountains, several hundred meters high and devoid of either snow or vegetation. In the middle of the ring of twelve lies a crater half as deep as the mountains are tall and layers and layers of stratified earth reveal billions of years of history. At the bottom of this crater is a small lake, fed by the clouds, but the sun never shines on the lake, for hovering directly above the lake is a massive Artifact, shaped roughly like an egg. The bottom third is made of rock the same color of the mountains around it, but above that lays a jagged turqoise crystal, which rises just above the peaks of the mountains so that it is illuminated by sunlight from dawn to dusk. 

This floating crystal is inaccessible to nearly every creature, and so is entirely devoid of wildlife. No bird flies near and no bats make their nest there. Every intrepid explorer who has deigned to explore, who reaches the Artifact by means of magic or a dragon, has inexplicably vanished, along with any observers present. An inquisitive dragon and his rider once flew over the crystal and dropped the largest boulder they could find. The boulder tumbled down onto the crystal and lay there. However, as soon as the rider flew to grab another rock, or even looked away, or even blinked, the boulder vanished. The Artifact is also completely impervious to any and all damage. No spells loosed nor ballistae employed can produce the even slightest scratch. The wind and the rain and the thunder themselves, who effortlessly carves the rivers and the mountains, fail to touch the crystal. The crystal also appears to store a truly incalculable amount of energy, for the skeins of its power can be readily felt by anyone nearby who opens their mind. However, anyone who attempts to draw energy from the crystal instantly drops dead.

The Artifact is not entirely inanimate, but rather, sways back and forth in the wind. Each oscillation lasts several minutes, and never exceeds more than a handful of meters. The harder the wind blows, the smaller the oscillations, and the softer the wind is, the farther it swings. Simultaneously, the Artifact rotates at an exceedingly slow rate, so that only when an entire cycle of seasons has passed has the Artifact completed a single rotation. Every ten years, the direction of its rotation is abruptly reversed. Every one-hundred years the crystal changes its hue. Every one-thousand, for one day and one night, a beam of energy appears from the center of the crystal and shoots into the sky. Its intensity is such that on the island of Eoam, night grows indistinguisable from day. From Aberon to Teirm to the Gil'ead, from the ruins of Vroengard to the elfen capital of Ellesmera, to the snowcapped peak of Farthen Dûr, the shaft of light is sharply visible, shooting past the highest clouds, the highest mountains, piercing the very sky. 

The purpose and device of this Artifact is still fiercely contested in scholarly halls around Alagaësia. But while the debate goes on and the wars rage on, spilling oceans of blood, and while kings and queens ascend to power, only topple from their thrones a short time later, and cities rise and bustle and prosper and fall, while dragons still fly, while the sun still rises and sets, and while the earth itself grows old and decrepit, all this while, the Artifact carries on. 

Persists. 

Endures.


End file.
